April 1, 2008 tennis birthdays - no foolin'Back to video

, the third (and perhaps best) of the three Bulgarian tennis-playing sisters, who turns 33.

Maleeva reached No. 4 in singles (Jan. 1996) and No. 13 in doubles (Feb. 2004) during a long career that had her playing in Grand Slam events every year between 1990 and 2005. Her career best was a quarter-final at the 1992 U.S. Open; but the reached the round-of-16 14 other times. Her longevity was all the more amazing considering she turned pro on her 14th birthday.

She won 10 singles titles in all.

Also celebrating:

Mirka Vavrinec, a former Tour player but best known as the longtime significant other of Roger Federer, turns the big 3-0 today.

For some reason, they’ve got her resume listed on the WTA Tour site (with a fairly glam updated photo) even though her career was brief.

No wonder those periodic rumours of a bun in the oven, which are reaching a fever pitch on Federer’s web site these days, have returned.

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Born in Slovakia, Vavrinec reached a high of No. 76 on the WTA Tour singles chart, on Sept. 10, 2001. She reached the third round of the U.S. Open that year.

She lost in the first round of her last six tournaments through the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002, and called it quits. Of course, by then, she and Roger had already hooked up. But she OWNED Rita Kuti Kis of Hungary (on the honour roll for best tennis name ever).

And last but not least, Gloucester, Ont.’s own Gabriela Dabrowski, probably the best young Canadian female prospect, turns 16 today.

Dabrowski is in Pelham, Alabama at a $25,000 Challenger. She lost in the final round of qualifying to Mirjana Lucic, but got into the main draw as a lucky loser after some withdrawals.

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